La Liga action resumed this past Friday and fans were treated to a 7-goal thriller as 9th placed Espanyol got the better of 12th placed Las Palmas by 4 goals to 3. Saturday saw away wins for Alaves and Atletico Madrid over Malaga and Granada respectively. 16th placed Malaga have now gone 4 games without victory and will be looking nervously over their shoulder in the coming weeks as the relegation zone creeps up ever closer. Diego Simeone’s men consolidated their spot in 4th place as Antione Griezmann’s 12th league goal of the season secured a narrow 1-0 win over Granada Earlier in the day, Sporting Gijon in 19th kept their survival hopes alive with a hard-fought 1-1 draw away to Valencia. They are still 7 points adrift from safety with 11 games left to play. Elsewhere Sevilla failed to close the gap on the leaders as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Leganes.
After their heroics against PSG in midweek, which saw Barcelona become the first team in UEFA Champions League history to overturn a 4-goal first leg deficit, they were brought back down to earth in the most dramatic of fashion. In what could prove to be a costly defeat in the title race, Deportivo La Coruna, languishing in the bottom half of the table stunned the champions 2-1. Last season, Barca won this fixture 8-0 when Luis Suarez found the back of the net 4 times, and after scoring the equaliser right at the start of the second half, they looked on course to recover all 3 points but it was Deportivo, now 4 matches unbeaten under new boss Pepe Mel, who stole the headlines.
Real Madrid were not going to spurn the opportunity to go top and after they too had to come back from a goal down, captain Sergio Ramos rose highest to head in the winner in the 81st minute – his 10th goal of the season. Los Blancos, now unbeaten in their last 4, have gone 2 points clear of Barcelona at the top of the table, with a game in hand over their rivals. Betis on the other hand have won just once in their last 10 outings and find themselves in 14th. Villarreal moved up to 5th place as they won 1-0 away at Celta Vigo, whilst Real Sociedad dropped to 6th after being defeated at home, 2-0 by Athletic Bilbao.
Monday evening sees just one fixture as bottom of the log Osasuna welcome Eibar. The hosts have won just once all season, 2-0 over Granada back in December and anything less than a win tonight will surely see the task of survival become too great to overcome.